Here's a sneak peak at our first draft map data for the area around Leningrad in our new War in Europe map. We are creating a map of Europe that will be used for our series of games (next up is War in the West 43-45). Eventually you'll see it used for the east front again. Notice there is more heavy forest than in WitE (the darker green). This map data is being created by Jason Petho. We're excited to have him working on the map. Although Pavel helped create a very realistic map of the Soviet Union for WitE, there were some distortion issues we couldn't get around due to the way the projection was originally done. Although no flat map will ever be accurate given a round world, we think Jason's projection decisions will minimize the distortion issues and ultimately give us an even better map for the WiE series. We think WitE is the best, most accurate map of the Soviet Union that Gary's ever had in one of his east front games, but we expect the WiE map will be even better. Remember the map you see is only an alpha map being used for the data and initial alpha testing. Eventually we expect the map to be fully painted like the map in WitE.

Looks fantastic. From a glance, is the second brown line the Finnish no-attack line, or just the old state border? If so, it seems significantly less deep into Russia then the one in WiTE, and would make it tougher for the Germans to reach (a good thing to my mind.)

Looks fantastic. From a glance, is the second brown line the Finnish no-attack line, or just the old state border? If so, it seems significantly less deep into Russia then the one in WiTE, and would make it tougher for the Germans to reach (a good thing to my mind.)

Isn't that a lot of clear (pink) terrain right in front of Lenigrad leading up to the city hex? I'm not sure that in real life that terrain is clear, or in any way tank-friendly. Making it clear for game purposes is going to make Leningrad really hard to hold on to against a frontal assault.

ORIGINAL: delatbabel Isn't that a lot of clear (pink) terrain right in front of Lenigrad leading up to the city hex? I'm not sure that in real life that terrain is clear, or in any way tank-friendly. Making it clear for game purposes is going to make Leningrad really hard to hold on to against a frontal assault.

The pink hexes seem to be city hexes, so I'm guessing you mean the white-yellowish hexes. Yes, those might make it easier to get to the city, but note that the layout of the rivers in the area is also quite different from the one in WitE, so you'll have an extra river to hide behind for part of the defending force. It could be that rough hexes are missing, however, as there are only 4 types of non-city/urban land hexes on that WiE pre-alpha map, and 5 in WitE.